What Makes You Upvote/Downvote a Guide?

Simple question.

For me, lack of gameplay almost always gets an instant downvote, with some exceptions.

As for upvotes, it's also tied with gameplay. Literally, if a guide had nothing but good and solid gameplay info, I'd upvote*.

But realistically, I get a good item and skills and build sections, and an okay gameplay section, and that's enough for me to upvote.

Why? If you want a simple build + skill order, then you're on the wrong site. Smitefire is about guides - and I wish more guides had actual guiding.

What makes or breaks a guide for you, and why?

*Like TT's Arena Guide or MysticBadger's Support Guide.

I'm actually in the process of writing a guide to making guides, and I have my opinion on the mandatory qualities and chapters of a good guide. I'll link it here when I publish it. My answer was "meh," by the way, because it depends on the rest of the guide, itself.

A guide that lacks gameplay does not have to be bad and it certainly does not vouch for a downvote. If a guide consists about just a build with explanation of the items and the different abilities and why you pick up the items you do, how you use the abilities etc.

If the reasoning behind the items and the way you lvl the abilities is correct and you explain it in a way that makes it easy to understand that is worthy a upvote in my book. I get that you might not want to give it a upvote, but downvoting it is just not right.

If the build is bad, there is no reasoning for how you lvl the abilities etc. that is a downvote for me.

Most ppl who play this game does not need a guide to tell you that you can use Universe Ring Toss on jungle camps to get the movement speed buff for either chasing or escaping an enemy. So a guide does not have to say anything about that to be a good guide for someone who knows the game, but for someone who's never played the game would need that.

So by downvoting guides that do not explain gameplay, makes the site less useful for players who actually know the game. Sure it makes it easier for new players to find that one guide (that have not been downvoted because it is full of gameplay scenarios), but does it hurt to have short guides that explains the basics of a god in a good way??

I am all for having in depth guides! But why does that have to rule out short guides that explains the basics of a certain god??

Just because Smitefire is great for making long and in depth guides does not mean that it should be the only sort of guide we accept, because frankly that is not what everyone need.

It is like if you have a bakery that is super good at baking some sort of bread, should suddenly stop making anything else because they are so good at making that specific bread. Do you think that would make them more or less money? hmm...

the key word that makes me want to say meh is "instant" i think that first the guide maker should be made awere that it would help his guide to have gameplay worked into it. let him have a chance to update and if he does not do that in 1-2 weeks they will get downvoted.

If a guide has good gameplay, it has a good everything else. I have not found a single exception to this rule.

And how is a good guide worse for experienced players? They can just skip to the chapter they want. Are you suggesting that experienced players need a specific kind of guide that lacks gameplay but has a good build? Are you implying that guides with good gameplay lack good builds?

"But why does that have to rule out short guides that explains the basics of a certain god"

It doesn't. Explaining the basics is a part of gameplay. The guides I downvote typically have either A. Nothing of use, and B. Good items, skills, build, but 0 on gameplay.

Lastly, I think you miss the entire point of having a gameplay section. A gameplay section doesn't tell you to use Universe Ring Toss to clear camps, it tells you how to survive as Ne Zha late game where everyone has bought beads and you're a squishy assassin. It tells you what you are supposed to do and how, in a broad scope beyond one or two skills.

Well...I can always change my vote.

yeah i guess.

The thing is that an experienced player as you said does not need all the chapters, so he would most likely just want a short explanation of a god than having to scroll down page after page (or skip to a certain chapter). I am not saying that you have to upvote a guide you do not think have enough gameplay in it, I am saying that it is just hurting to downvote them. Just simply do not vote....

A bad guide deserves downvotes, but there is a huge gap between a great guide that explains everything and a guide that actually is bad.

I am just going to use this guide as an example, because this apparently is a ****ty guide:
https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/athena-support-build-3834

It explains how to build her as a new player and a experienced player, gives good reasoning behind the items and how to use the abilities, pros and cons, basic gameplay, how to ward.

The build is correct the reasoning behind it is good etc etc and it is short and easy to read (even though the English is not the best). In my book that is a upvote, I can understand not voting but giving it a downvote is just uncalled for.

I myself would much prefer reading a guide like that if I want to look a bit into Athena support than reading a guide the same length of my Ne Zha guide for instance.

EDIT: This on the other hand deserves a downvote (no offense theophagy):
https://www.smitefire.com/smite/guide/thanatos-the-god-slayer-death-god-3195

I need to clarify something. I don't downvote to signal that it is a bad guide, I downvote because that is how guides are graded. There is no 2/5 or 4/5 or 7/10. Only 0/2 or 1/2 or 2/2.

For Setolino's guide, I'd give it a 2/5, which is below average*. I consider gameplay to be that important, and more importantly, teamfighting is even more important for a support tank. It's their lifeblood, along with laning phase.

About that, I think our preferences for gameplay are just chalked to personal taste.

But the reason why I so intensely hate a lack of gameplay is because of how simple it is to make.



I don't ask you to go into detail. I ask for a statement of roles, and how.

Look at how concise and simple that is! He shows combos, and writes what they are used for. Bam, we instantly know what Vamana is supposed to do in lane and in teamfights. It doesn't take a wall of text or a bunch of coding to impress me, it just takes solid info.

If you neglect gameplay and call it a full guide, well,

it's not

.

That is why I downvote guides with no gameplay.

Guess I just don't get where this is to not explain gameplay:


For a lot of ppl that is all you need, but I agree that it is not worth 5/5. A guide that teaches bad habits deserves a downvote IMO, but a guide that actually is correct does not.